The Beornings

[The Saucepan Man]

We now have 10 first generation Beornings (obviously the eldest being Grimbeorn the Old), and 100 grandchildren to Beorn. That's obviously an entire 'race' of Beornings, at least that's a lot of men.

Keeper, for Beorn to have 10 children, and then for each of them to have 10 children themselves (with none dying in childhood) would be quite an impressive feat. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] But, then again, who's to say that he did not have 20 children, and 200 grandchildren? The exact number of Beorn's offspring is pure speculation, save that we know that he had at least one child, Grimbeorn. In any event, I think it unlikely that his descendants would have been of sufficent number to count as a "race" in the way that Aragorn refers to the Beornings.

But, essentially, we are in agreement. The Beornings would have comprised the descendants of Beorn, together with the woodmen of the area gathered together under his, and later his son's, leadership.

Possibly they would have included other shape-changers unrelated (save distantly) to Beorn's family. But the only evidence of this is the presence of the paw-prints outside Beorn's house, which could have been left by regular bears. So, I remain doubtful on this.

Edited because I attributed the quote to Eomer despite getting it right first time round. [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[ September 30, 2003: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ]